Arrays of small lenses having a diameter on the order of one millimeter are referred to as micro-lenses or lenslets. Structures incorporating the same and have been made in a number of ways and used for a variety of purposes. An array of micro-lenses has been matched to an array of pixels on a television screen or other raster imaging device. Another use, such as that illustrated in "Agile Beam Steering Using Binary Optics Microlens Arrays", by W. Goltsos and M. Holz, Optical Engineering Vol. 29 No. 11, page 1392, is for steering a collimated beam of monochromatic radiation through an angle by translating one of a pair of binary micro-lens arrays that combine to form an array of Galilean telescopes. The beam is required to be monochromatic because binary micro-lenses are highly dispersive.
A variety of optical systems can be formed from select configurations of micro-optic multiplets (MOM) comprised of two or more micro-lens modules (MLM). The MLM's themselves are typically formed from planar arrays of micro-lenses. With these optical systems a single primary image is formed together with a set of images transversely displaced from an optic axis. MOM's are characterized by the property that the image distance and the object distance move in the same direction, in stark contrast to known lens systems. For example, when an object distance decreases, the corresponding image distance also decreases with the present MLM optical system.
A panoramic imaging system is formed from select configurations of micro-optic multiplets (MOM) comprised of two microlens modules (MLM). The MLM's themselves are formed from arrays of micro-lenses. These panoramic imaging systems are characterized by the two MLM's configured on concentric, approximately spherical surfaces. The optic axis of each of the micro-lenses is tilted slightly with respect to its neighbor to allow for proper alignment of images to form a single primary image on a substantially spherical global image surface.
Prior applications of micro-lenses have been limited to those in which the unique optical properties of a MLM were exploited. However, other properties have as yet gone unrecognized and unused. Typical MLM construction is characterized by a regular array of lenslets in an opaque field or in a field whose optical properties are different from those of the lenslets. As such, a MLM presents an intrinsically binary optical structure. It would be advantageous to utilize pairs of micro-lens arrays configured with a pattern of encoded binary data on a first MLM deciphered with a second MLM. The present optical system is drawn towards such an invention.